Construction practice and oil field services commonly require the need to dispense large quantities of spooled or coiled elongate materials. However, construction site conditions often provide unique challenges due to terrain features, impediments and difficulties for the transportation and efficient installation of such materials.
Various devices are known for storing and/or dispensing cable and other types of elongate materials. The present disclosure relates to a mobile mechanism for hands free storage, transportation and deployment of electrical cables, ropes, hoses, or other items. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to a mobile mechanism which includes an apparatus for selectively retracting and extending electrical cables, ropes, hoses, and other items for example, thereon.
Some of the known devices include reel assemblies wherein elongate material is wound on a spool or a reel disposed in a container. In such devices, the user dispenses elongate material by pulling on the free end of the material. However, when the user stops pulling, the spool may continue to rotate due to the momentum of the rotating spool and material. Therefore, the spool may continue to dispense the elongate material from the spool and cause the elongate material to become trapped between the spool and the container, or to become tangled with itself. Further, the elongate material may also become wrapped around the spool or its internal support thereby creating a material jam and becoming a potential safety hazard or may result in a twist or kink that may damage the elongate material.
Festooning cables may also result in a loss of elongate material length thereby increasing project costs where a user needs to use more cable than is ordinarily required to traverse a given distance. The loss in length results from the kinks and twists that may occur in a festooning cable.
A need exists for elongate material dispensers that are capable of dispensing large quantities of elongate material without significant loss of length due to curls in the elongate material that may be a result of spooled or coiled storage. Further, there exists a need for a dispenser that offers collapsibility and is easy to transport to and around challenging terrains such as construction sites and oil rigs.